DANNY KAYE--A TRUE AND LASTING STAR

Danny was born David Daniel Kaminsky in Brooklyn on January 18, 1913, the third son of an immigrant Jewish Ukrainian tailor and the only one in his family to be born in America. He was considered the class clown during his time in the New York City public school system and he became so popular that he was convinced he could make more money "clowning around" than staying in school and graduating. So, at the tender age of 13, he ran away to Florida where he sang on the streets to earn money to live.

By 1933, he had changed his name to Danny Kaye and was back in New York State where he worked for a radio station and performed at the summer hotels and camps of the Catskills as a comedian. It was while working here that he joined a dance team.

On the opening night of his first show, he lost his balance, fell onto the stage and was shocked, baffled and then pleased when the audience broke into a roar of laughter. They had loved his physical comedy and he loved the sound of their laughter! He kept the fall in the act as well as adding other physical comedy bits.

In 1934, Danny had an opportunity to travel to the Orient to work in a series of clubs but because he was unable to speak the languages of his audiences, he began to fine-tune his double-talk, the babbling speech, his mime work and his dialect routines as a way to communicate. Laughter was his way to reach the audience and by honing his comedy skills he was able to do this.

Eventually, Danny became so good at the high speed double-talking, nonsense words that it threatened to typecast him. To avoid this, he worked on his other skills and became an excellent singer, actor and dancer.

Danny Kaye made his film debut in a 1935 comedy short entitled Moon Over Manhattan. In 1937 he signed with New York-based Educational Pictures for a series of two-reel comedies. Kaye usually played a manic, dark-haired, fast-talking Russian in these low-budget shorts, opposite young hopefuls like June Allyson or Imogene Coca

Two of these shorts were Dime a Dance, with
Imogene Coca in 1937, and Money Or Your Life (listed by some as Money On Your Life) in 1938. The film series ended abruptly when the studio shut down permanently in 1938 after the last short was made. Unfortunately, Danny's film career also shut down for several years before reviving again.

Danny Kaye made his Broadway debut in "The Straw Hat Revue" with Imogene Coca in 1939. Later that same year he was cast in "Lady in the Dark" by Moss Hart. He debuted in this part on January 21, 1941.

Kaye had married a young woman named Sylvia Fine in 1940, and this marked another turning point in his career, because Sylvia Fine would become not only his manager, but the author of some of his best gags and routines, as well as his lyricist. It was she who wrote the tongue-twisting songs and monologues with which Kaye had captured Moss Hart's attention.

Hart had written Danny into the play with an 11 minute part playing a temperamental photographer who's mastered the art of tongue twisters. Danny did the now famous song "Tchaikovsky", in which he sings the names of 54 Russian composers (real and fictional) in 38 seconds, seemingly without taking a breath. It brought the second act to a standstill. Danny later recorded the song on one of his albums.

In recognization for his performance and growing popularity, he was given a $500 a week salary (a good amount of money for the time) and billing on the marquee. A major forward step for his career.

Danny then had the lead role in "Let's Face It", a show about army life with a score written by Cole Porter, Herbert and Dorothy Fields and Sylvia Fine (his wife).

Through the early 40's Danny continued to entertain in night clubs, on Broadway and with the USO, traveling overseas to entertain the troops during WWII. Though Kaye had appeared in his first film in 1937, it wasn't until almost ten years later that his film career hit its stride.

Producer Samuel Goldwyn signed him in 1943 to star in the comedy "Up In Arms". Goldwyn agonized over Kaye's ethnic, Jewish looks and ordered him to undergo a nose job. Kaye and his wife refused, and Goldwyn came up with another way to brighten Kaye's dark features by lightening his hair, giving him his trademark redheaded locks.

Kaye's rubber face and fast patter were an instant hit and for the next decade he was one of the screen's biggest comedy and musical stars.

He made several of his first films with Virginia Mayo, a well known star of the time. He made a total of 17 films in all during this period.

Some of the best included Wonderman, The Kid From Brooklyn, The Court Jester, Merry Andrew, Me and the Colonel, The Inspector General, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Hans Christian Andersen, White Christmas and The Five Pennies.

In 1948, Danny took his one-man concert review to London to the Palladium. Here he performed before the Royal Family who, for the first time in history, left the Royal Box and moved to the front row of the orchestra in order to get a better view of the performance. It was said that he "roused the Royal family to shrieks of laughter."

Danny also conducted several major symphony orchestras even though he claimed he couldn't read a note. Of course, each concert was accompanied with unpredictable zany antics, yet master conductors praised his work and said that the music was true to its symphonic form.

The "The Flight of the Bumble Bee", conducted with a flyswatter of all things, was his most requested concert performance. This piece performed along with others raised more than $5,000,000 through the years for various Musicians Pension Funds.

His "Live From Lincoln Center: An Evening With Danny Kaye and The New York Philharmonic" was labeled an outstanding performance and helped win him the Peabody Award in 1981. The other factor to winning the award was his one and only dramatic role as a Nazi concentration camp survivor in "Skokie", a television production from that same year.

Danny Kaye also starred in his own musical-variety series on television, "The Danny Kaye Show" from 1963 to 1967 for which he won an Emmy in 1963.

He returned to Broadway in 1970 in "Two by Two" where he injured his hip. Nevertheless, he continued on with the show, appearing night after night for 10 months either on crutches or in a wheelchair. In 1976, he starred opposite Sandy Duncan in "Pinocchio" and as Captain Hook with Mia Farrow in "Peter Pan".

But it is in "The Court Jester" that Kaye displays the vocal, tongue-twisting talents which made him famous when he says the simple line, "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true."

Danny said that for the rest of his life it never failed that wherever he went at least one fan would run up to him and quote that line.

Danny was immortalized in true Hollywood style when he put his hand and footprints in Hollywood Walk of Fame (located at 6563 Hollywood Blvd) in 1969.

Though performing was his life, his heart was with UNICEF where he was named a permanent ambassador-at-large for the world's children. In 1965, when that agency was selected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Danny Kaye was selected to accept it.


He logged thousands of miles appearing for UNICEF and once went to 65 cities in just 5 day, piloting his own aircraft and so entered the Guinness Book Of Records. Of his UNICEF work he once commented, "I think maybe I get along so well with kids because I'm not afraid to be a child."

An interesting, yet not well known fact, is that Danny Kaye was the original owner of baseball's Seattle Mariners along with his partner Lester Smith from 1977 to 1981.

Prior to that, the lifelong fan of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers recorded a song called "The D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh really? No, O'Malley!)", describing a fictitious encounter with the San Francisco Giants, which was a hit during those clubs' real-life pennant chase of 1962.

In 1980, Kaye hosted and sang in the 25th Anniversary of Disneyland celebration, and hosted the opening celebration for Epcot in 1982 (EPCOT Center at the time), both of which were aired on prime-time American television.

Danny underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in 1983. Unfortunately, this was long before blood suppliers had a way to screen out blood contaminated with hepatitis C. This "bad blood" would not catch up to him for a few more years.

Mr. Danny Kaye died in Los Angeles, California on March 3, 1987 ,at the age of 74 from a heart attack, following a bout of hepatitis and internal bleeding, the result of the transfusion of contaminated blood during bypass heart surgery four years earlier.

He was survived by his wife, Sylvia Fine Kaye, and their daughter, Dena.

He is interred in the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York where his grave is marked by a bench. The back of which contains friezes of a baseball and bat, an aircraft, a piano, a flower pot, musical notes, and a glove. All the things that he loved and that made up his life.

The evening that Danny Kaye died, President Ronald Reagan made this statement: "A comedian, actor, singer, and conductor, Danny Kaye delighted millions the world over with his special talent for making us laugh. His numerous credits on Broadway, on the screen, and on television were all characterized by his devotion to his craft. Even though he was just acting, his genuine love for people came through. Children, especially, felt his warmth and humanity, and he enjoyed a special bond with his young audiences. Danny Kaye could light up a room just by smiling. He shared his talent with the world, and by so doing, made it a better place. He will be missed, and Nancy joins me in extending our deep sympathy to his family."

Comedian, singer, dancer, entertainer, master of mimicry, gourmet chef, pilot, symphony conductor, UNICEF ambassador, husband, father; Danny Kaye touched many people in all his various endeavors through out his life.

To make people laugh with his singing, impersonations, fast talking and miming was his goal each and every time he went on stage, before a camera or before an audience. I think he succeeded.

He left behind an unforgettable legacy of good will and humor that will be remembered for many years to come.

1944 - Up In Arms
1945 - Wonder Man
1946 - Kid From Brooklyn
1947 - Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1948 - Song Is Born
1949 - Inspector General
1949 - It's A Great Feeling
1951 - On The Riviera
1952 - Hans Christian Andersen
1953? - Invitation to the Dance
1954 - Knock On Wood
1954 - White Christmas
1956 - Court Jester
1958 - Merry Andrew
1958 - Me and the Colonel
1959 - Five Pennies
1961 - On The Double
1963 - Diner's Club
1969 - Madwoman Of Chailot

A jester unemployed is nobody's fool!~~~The Court Jester

I wasn't born a fool. It took work to get this way.~~~The Court Jester

You'd be surprised how many kings are only a queen with a mustache.~~~Hans Christsan Andersen

You bet I arrived overnight. Over a few hundred nights in the Catskills, in vaudeville, in clubs and on Broadway.

Your small minds are muscle bound with suspicion. That's why the only exercise you ever get is jumping to conclusions.~~~The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch onto the affirmative, don't mess with Mr. In-Between.~~~The Danny Kaye Show

If you're not cooking with joy, happiness and love, you're not cooking well.

I'm proud to recall that at no time at all and that with no other resources but my own resources, with firm application and determination....I made a fool of myself.~~~The Court Jester

Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can.

BOY, THOSE DANNY KAYE MOVIES JUST CRACK US UP!